Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) 8 week program
When we start to practice mindfulness and notice where the mind is going, we can be surprised to hear how harsh our inner critic can be. If we spoke to our friends the way we speak to ourselves sometimes, we probably wouldn’t have many friends! Loving Kindness and Self-Compassion are ways to start befriending ourselves and treating ourselves a little more kindly, the way we might treat a good friend – with care, trust, respect, loyalty, kindness and love! Dr Kristin Neff explain that in self-compassion we are opening up to the ‘common humanity’ of suffering, that we are not alone and that we all know moments of difficulty. This awareness that we are all in this together can be very supportive at challenging times. Neff explains that we can start to motivate ourselves from a place of self-compassion rather than just the inner critic. From this place of self-compassion, we are more likely to be less critical of ourselves when we make mistakes and actually have more successful outcomes by learning from them.
This non-secular 8 week group programme consists of 2-3 hour sessions each week, for participants to experience and practice Self-Compassion and Mindfulness training. The teacher guides meditations, which is followed by discussion of participant’s direct experience in order to explore how they relate to these experiences and making links to identify patterns and habits with the lens of self-compassion and kindness. Participants are asked to do home practice which includes daily guided meditations and exercises. The MSC program was developed by Dr Kristin Neff and Dr Chris
The 8 Week MBSR/MBCT programmes are not group therapy, although there can be healing. It is a very practical, educational programme which teaches us to apply mindfulness to our daily lives. This programme develops self-awareness, and resilience around pain, low mood, anxiety and depression in order to lead to improved well- being and healthier coping mechanisms.
Prior to the course Fiona will arrange an orientation phone call with you. As this is an intensive 8 week course in mindfulness and meditation it is important that you understand fully what will be involved. This call will help you to ascertain if it is the right course for you, and if it is the right time for you to do it.
Health Benefits of Befriending, Loving Kindness Practices
There has been a huge increase in self-compassion research linked to Wellbeing (Zessin, Dickhauser & Garbadee, 2015) showing reductions in negative mind states: anxiety, depression, stress, rumination, shame, perfectionism and thought suppression. As well as, increases in positive mind states such as life satisfaction, self-confidence, optimism, curiousity, happiness, connectedness and gratitude. Other health benefits include better coping with chronic health conditions (Sirois, 2015), improved Motivation linked to a desire to learn and grow (Neff, Hseih & Dejitthirat, 2005), less likely to develop PTSD after combat trauma (Hiraoka et al, 2015), less fear of failure, more likely to try again and persist in efforts after failure (Breines & Chen , 2012) and healthier behaviours such as helps smokers quit, less alcohol use, more exercise (Terry & Leary, 2011).
According to Professor Paul Gilbert (2009), when we criticise ourselves we are connecting into the body’s threat-defence system (our reptilian brain). This is our fight, flight or freeze system that helped us evolve and allowed us to escape quickly when there was danger approaching. When this system is activated, the Amygdala gets triggered and there is a release of cortisol and adrenaline in the body as we get ready for the threat. This system was very useful when there was a real threat to our selves, however now a days the threat of being eaten by a tiger is pretty unlikely unless we are on safari and get a little lost! According to Gilbert, nowadays our threat is to our self-concept and identity, when we feel inadequate our self-concept is threatened, so we attack the problem – ourselves. (Germer & Neff, 2015). Training in mindfulness and self-compassion can help bring awareness and kindness to all of this, which soothes the nervous system and allows the relaxation response to be present in the body and mind.